A few pictures

The two new guys are being buddies and that makes me happy. ALso! I'm having the insane realization that I never even posted pictures of the Cory I got like a year and a half ago, Amenhotep! I went and snapped a couple shots just barely and here are a few.

Two new fish today to join Aphrodite and Rameses: a black skirt tetra and a serpae tetra. The black skirt is named Han Fei Tzu (pronounced "Hawn-FateSuh") after the ancient Chinese philosopher and the serpae's name is yet to be decided... I'm trying to decide between MinLi, Wang-yu/Shou-Yu, or Xiao-fang

All the same excuses..

So once again, it's been months since I've posted to this blog.. Hehe 😁 But life in the Underwater Empire is the same as always.. The tank keeps getting dirty so I finally clean it.... Anywho, I am making this post to deliver the news that our dear Dionysus/Aranyani has passed away..(on this day, November  19th, 2014) He was a beautiful fish and he will be missed. It was so cute, before I noticed his death, Hera and Vespasion were guarding his body. They stayed close to him until I got his body out.. K

I suppose now would also be a good time to mention that one of the Cories went missing (and the worst part is I don't know when, I see one of them and assume it's the other...) I believe it was Rameses. I will be burying Dionysus at my next opportunity, which may not be until the Springtime.. (The ground is already frozen where I live). Until next time! 

Hello again! I'm not kidding when I say that this blog post has seriously been a week in the making... Every time I think I can make a complete blog post, something else happens and I have to completely change what I wrote! So.. Where to begin... Well, as usual my tank was really dirty and neglected and I finally got around to cleaning it.. So that happened. Another thing: for the last 2 or so weeks, my heater had been heating my tank up to like 90 degrees so I would turn it off and then once I would remember it would be down to like 50-60 degrees so I'd freak out and turn it back on and the same thing would happen so the temperature was changing dramatically at a very rapid pace every day.. So I finally just went to Petco and got a new heater (it's the same one I had in my 10 gal.) and it's working wonderfully! While I was at Petco, I decided to pick up some fishies, cause my tank has been feeling a bit empty. So I bought one new guppy- yellow with a red stripe on his fin- and named him Remus (as in  the brother of Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome) and also because his colors reminded me of Gryffindor and Remus Lupin was a Gryffindor (if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm referring to Harry Potter). And while I was there I also picked up a new spotted Cory and named him Claudius. So everything was fine and dandy until the next morning... When I found our newest fish, Remus, along with the single remaining Pachus dead. So I went and buried them and came back looking for Claudius  and started to panic when I couldn't find him... So I was frantically looking all over for him and then I finally found him. He was alive.. But he was sucked up against the filter. So I turned the filter off and gently took him off only to discover a huge flesh wound on his side where the filter had been. So I quickly did some research, and put a dose of Melafix (heals wounds like that) and Slime Coat (rebuilds their slime coat and protects wounds..) and turned off the lights (relieves stress) and left him to try to heal. So this all happened on Sunday morning. I came and checked on him on Monday and he was still alive, so I repeated the dose ( you're supposed or continue for 7 days and then do a water change..) and let him be and then last night (Tuesday night) I checked and the little guy didn't make it. I will be burying him today after I post this and will add a picture of his gravestone later. So then I proceeded to do another water change to get rid of the excess medicine in the water and put the carbon filter back in the filter. So then TODAY I went to a fish store that I had never been to before called "The Aquarium" and it seems they've really got it together, I saw them cleaning the tanks and they remove any fish that die and they have a wide variety. They also had a nearly full grown pleco there! It was HUGE! Anyways, I ended up buying the same two types of fish- a Cory and a guppy. The Cory's name shall be Amenhotep and the guppy... Well, I can't decide between Hadrian and Vespasian.. Tell me in the comments below! Also regarded names, I have officially decided to change Aranyani's name to Dionysus! Ok? Ok. Is really all the news? Well, if I remember anything else I'll be sure to add it to this post. Bye for now! 

A Bipolar Tank

(I just found I that this post never got published, so I'm doing it now.. Let the record show that I wrote this on June 12th, 2014.) 

Hello again! Well, I come again bearing bad news... Hippocrates, our dear sea snail, has passed. In all honesty, I have to say that his death was the most disgusting one to have to deal with... You know way back when when I thought Socrates might be dead (he was actually napping..) and I looked up how to know if a sea snail is dead, and they told me that they would stink. Yeah, well they weren't kidding. He smelled SO BAD. Only to make things worse, when I lifted his shell out of the water (with the net..) this nasty, smelly, brown liquid poured out into the water (I assume it was what was left of his actual body.. 😳😁) I'll spare you the rest of the juicy details. I'm still not sure if I should worry that the water is contaminated now.. I had a small funeral and buried his shell, remembering how tiny he was when I first got him... I'm gonna miss him a lot! He was a great snail! I other news, a couple of days ago I was cleaning my tank and I accidentally scrubbed something I shouldn't have on the filter..ll which ended in it making horrid noises every time I turned it on... So I kept it off for a few days until I could get a new filter and just for kicks I tried turning it on again today ans voila! It works! I also got some new goodies... A new bubble curtain and this stuff that's supposed to minimize algae (which I could use now that Hippocrates and Zeus are gone!). So, we'll see how this all goes.... Y'all can expect to be introduced to some new fish soon! 

Productivity?

Hello there, blog! Haven't seen you in a while! Well, to say nothing has happened in a while would be a major lie... I've just continued to be lazy and forget to maintain all these things.. I've decided the most painless way to update you is in the form of a list, so here ya go! 

-Persephone died (3/30)

-I did a ghetto water change (it involved filling up plastic Tupperware and dumping, then repeat as necessary, then reverse.) 

-My cousin is moving and all over her fish died except one, so I adopted him! Please welcome Hera (4/21) to the Underwater Empire! She will be a great friend to Aranyani after the fairly recent death of Persephone (Hera is a fancy guppy..). 

- Speaking of Aranyani, I am lightly considering changing her name to Dionysus.., just cause whenever I look at her, that's what I want to call her... Thoughts? (Leave a comment!)

- I FINALLY buried all of the fish we've lost! What's it been? 3 months? 4? Sheesh. It felt good to finally be caught up with that. Now they can finally rest in peace! (In my defense, the ground was still frozen until like March, so really my laziness as an excuse only really applies to the last month or two.) I also rewrote all the gravestone markings because they were all rubbed off after all the winter snow. Hooray! 

Is that all? I felt like I had so much more to tell you all... Huh. Well, If I remember anything dramatic, I'll be sure to update you guys (hopefully 😁)! 

Oh yeah, and as a sidenote: none of my other tabs are updated right now because I have to be on a computer to do that (I'm writing all this via ipad..) and I haven't gotten around to it yet.. But expect it soon and goodbye!